


Disaster Tourism

by vailkagami



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Gen, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 03:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2836163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vailkagami/pseuds/vailkagami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The upside of a TARDIS is that it can go anywhere and any time you want. The downside is that it usually comes with Time Lords.</p><p>No point in history is as difficult to navigate as the history between the Doctor and the Master. Alison doesn't try. She just does her best not to be turned to dust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disaster Tourism

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a secret santa gift for [superpunksuperfunk](http://superpunksuperfunk.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Challenge: http://classicwhosecretsanta.tumblr.com/

It's past midnight when they leave Alison's mother, and the only reason why they don't stay the night is because she thinks, by then, that the Doctor would leave her behind if she didn't allow him an escape from the terror of domesticity and familial love right there. It's past midnight, but it's summer and the nights are short, and the sun is rising before they reach the TARDIS – rising unseen behind clouds and clouds and rain, falling gently against the roof of the car. They don't talk; Alison stares at the street and the Doctor stares at everything and the only sound is the rain and the windscreen wipers. It's peaceful.

  
  


-

  
  


The Doctor said the TARDIS landed so far off their destination at her mother's estate because its navigation is faulty. On any other planet, Alison would believe him. Here she thinks that he landed the TARDIS far from any town because he didn't want the Master to cause trouble while they are away. He didn't want the Master to lure people into the TARDIS and force his will upon them, he didn't want the Master to have any access to intelligent beings unsupervised, and he didn't want to take the Master with them.

He probably didn't want the TARDIS to be covered in cats when they got back either, but, well, three out of four counts as a win under most circumstances.

  
  


-

  
  


Alison knows some of the history between the Doctor and the Master, though if she's honest with herself, she knows that there _is_ history between them and that it's the kind not shared with anyone outside an emergency. The kind that makes them gravitate towards each other in times of danger, makes them lie comfortably and unselfconsciously against each other on any soft surface during lazy days and makes the air freeze around them at a wrong comment or look. Sometimes, when the world shifts towards antagonizing and the Doctor's body tenses and his voice strains and the Master's very determinately doesn't, it's like they don't even remember Alison's existence. Mostly, that fills her with relief; they are like two tectonic plates at times like that, straining against each other, all power and pressure and force – she feels that if she ever got between them they would crush her to a smear on the floor and not even notice.

  
  


-

  
  


“Why do you always assume anything that happens, good or bad, must be my fault?” the Master asks, defensively and flirty at the same time the way everything he says always seems to be a little flirty. Seductive, maybe. He's holding one of the cats that got inside the TARDIS, like a James Bond villain.

“I rarely assume anything good has anything to do with you,” the Doctor replies, angry. “As for the bad things, take a wild guess!” 

Alison still doesn't know all the bad things. The Doctor makes a point of feeding her bits and pieces about the Master and their past, always sticking to the not-so-bad stuff. Mischievous, but not evil. Selfish, but not cruel. She knows this impression to be wrong.

“I was bored. I was lonely. You leave a man alone for days at a time, can you blame him for seeking companionship?”

“And was it cats you were trying to attract, or were you aiming for something more convenient and were defeated by your own incompetence?” the Doctor asks sharply. He snags the cat from the Master and sets it on the ground, then picks it back up when it starts rubbing against his leg instead of running off.

It purrs in his arms and he starts petting it. It should make the scene less tense but the Doctor can project an aura of barely contained fury even with a cat in his arms. It amazes Alison, even as she tries to fade into the background.

The Master, for his part, tries to look injured. A little jealous, maybe. Maybe he wants the cat back, or he wants to be the cat. After a moment he bends down and picks up his own and they stare at each other, the Doctor and the Master, each holding a happy feline.

The Master must have done something to dull their instincts. Or whatever he did only attracts cats that are particularly stupid.

“I was merely trying to pass the time.”

“A test run, then.”

“As a matter of fact, it was.” Now the Master looks at Alison and she wishes he didn't. “I mean to help you acquire a new companion when the time comes that you need one, as you use them up so quickly.”

  
  


-

  
  


Alison never knows where she stands with the Master. Sometimes he seems to genuinely like her, and then he'll make a remark that'll leave her thinking he's just playing one of the mind games he's so fond of. Sometimes he's openly, if dismissively hostile, as if she's not even worth his scorn, and then there are times when they fool around, or he shares fond, disconnected bits of his and the Doctor's past on that planet they never mention and she realises that  _she_ seems to genuinely like  _him_ , only then to wonder if he's hypnotizing her and withdraw. Sometimes he looks at her like she's an insect and he's holding a giant magnifying glass between her and he sun. Sometimes she thinks the Doctor is the sun.

She never quite understands where she stands with the Doctor either, only that she does genuinely like him most of the time, and most of the time he seems to enjoy her presence as well. Other times he forgets she exists. Rarely, he seems like a stranger who doesn't know her or why she's standing at his side.

One thing she knows for certain is that travelling in the TARDIS is better than travelling anywhere else. Eventually there might come a day when she wishes for stability and longs to go home. Eventually, she might feel she overstayed her welcome or the two aliens that are her companions become too much for her to bear. The day has not yet come.

She knows where she belongs on the rare days when they do nothing but linger in front of the pointless but nice fireplace, lying against each other in silent comfort, like cats; sometimes with cats. The Doctor's head resting against the Master's shoulder and the Master's hand in the Doctor's hair as they are reading the same book at the same lazy speed, and Alison's head resting on the Doctor's stomach as she gazes at the hungry flames and drifts.

  
  


24 December 2014


End file.
